Acquisition Note: The Fisk Papers were the gift of Walter Fisk Giersbach,
grandson of Marion Ballou and Charles Leon Fisk, in 2003.

Access and Restrictions:

This collection is open
for research.

Digital Surrogates: Except where indicated, this document describes but
does not reproduce the actual text, images and objects which make up this collection.
Materials are available only in the Special Collections Department.

. With his gift of this collection to the University
of Iowa, Walter Fisk Giersbach,

as Executor of the Estate of Marion Fisk
Giersbach,

also generously donated all copyrights to materials within it
that were created by Marion Ballou Fisk and Marion Fisk Giersbach. Mr. Giersbach
asks that the following credit line be used in acknowledgements: "Used
with the permission of the University of Iowa acting for the Estate of Marion
Ballou Fisk".

Use of Collections: The University
of Iowa Libraries supports access to the materials, published and unpublished,
in its collections. Nonetheless, access to some items may be restricted by their
fragile condition or by contractual agreement with donors, and it may not be
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or accessing non-paper-based materials. Please read our Use
of Manuscripts Statement.

Abbreviations:
For an explanation of the abbreviation and dating conventions used in the
finding aid, please see
Abbreviations.

Scope and Contents

Charles Leon Fisk
trained as a minister. While a student, during summers, he performed with the
Hesperian Quartet on the Redpath Chautauqua circuit. A few years later, when
he became ill and his recovery period was uncertain, his wife, Marion Ballou
Fisk, polished her drawing and public speaking skills and developed a career
as "Cartoonist - Lecturer - Entertainer," offering lecture programs
such as "Americans in the Making," "American Beauties,"
"New England Folks," and "Cap'n Tommy," an illustrated sermon.
She was an active tour performer from 1908 until 1926.

The present collection,
presented by her grandson Walter Fisk Giersbach, offers paricularly rich insights
into the work of a Chautauqua performer. Mrs. Fisk's letters to her family are
full of detail, and the records include photographs, promotional brochures,
notes from which she developed some of her lectures, a published article and
pamphlet, and programs. Making use of transcriptions begun in the 1970s by his
mother (who also performed briefly on the circuits), Mr. Giersbach transcribed
much of the material in the collection, and it has thus been possible to link
the full content, in digital format, of many items to this page. The original
artifacts, of course, reside only in the Libraries.

Folder 1.
Letters and writings(the following
items in Folders 1 and 2 are fully transcribed on the linked page)

Marion
Ballou Fisk (MBF) to her parents, ALS, July 16, 1908, 6 pages, following her
first program and explaining her being petrified of an audience of 1,500 and
how she steeled herself to meet them and succeed. Included in the text are pen-and-ink
and colored pencil drawings of the six pictures she drew. On letterhead of First
Congregational Church, Sabetha, Kansas. With typed partial transcript by Marion
Fisk Giersbach (MFG). For a transcription of this letter, click
here; for scans of the first four pages of the letter, click
here.

MBF (Killbuck, Ohio) to her mother
in Cleveland, ALS, January 15, 1914, 4 pages, describing her frustration in
balancing a business career and family. On her own, personalized letterhead
advertising her lectures. With typed transcript by Marion Fisk Giersbach.

MBF (Camrose, Alberta) to her mother,
ALS, July 10, 1917, 10 pages, following her first successful Chautauqua program
in Alberta, Canada; mentions the Canadian soldiers who had gone to fight in
Europe and those in the audience who had been wounded or lost arms and legs.
On the letterheads of the North Side Inn in Jerome, Idaho; the Hotel Drexel,
Vale, Oregon (3 sheets); and The Caledonia Hotel in Rupert, Idaho.

MBF to her mother, ALS, September
4, 1917, 10 pages, provides insights into the sights, people and difficulties
she encountered on the road, including a visit to Yellowstone Park with a fellow
Chautauqua performer. On letterhead of the Stark Hotel in Twin Bridges, Montana.

Geo. C. Carver (Carver’s Cash
Grocery, Melrose, New Mexico), TLS, February 4, 1918, 1 page. A visit from the
Chautauqua had a lasting effect on audiences, as evidenced by this letter that
notes the Melrose “Red Cross entertainment” had netted $72; her
drawings were auctioned for $40.25, $18.75 of which came from a nickel-a-vote
identification of “the ugliest man in the audience” by the audience.
The man “elected” was given the drawing of “Uncle Zeke.”
On Carver’s letterhead. With typed transcript by MFG.

MBF to her mother, ALS, February
9, 1918, 6 pages. Many of Mrs. Fisk’s letters were written on the fly
and often while waiting for a train, this one from El Paso while en route through
Texas. It shows her flair for description, which was utilized in her lectures.
On letterhead of the Copper Queen Hotel, Bisbee, Arizona.

Printout transcripts by Walter Fisk
Giersbach of the letters described above.

Folder 2:

MBF to her daughter, ALS, June 24,
1924, 4 pages, from Lititz, Pennsylvania. Marion Fisk [Giersbach] was also "talent"
on the circuit. MBF describes a thunderstorm that tested her ability to control
the crowd and repeats laudatory statements about her leadership.

MBF to her daughter, ALS, June 29,
1924, 4 pages, from Lititz, Pennsylvania. MBF describes the problems of meeting
with the local sponsors, or guarantors, for a program. Her discussions with
the Lyceum also lead to her being offered a position as a Superintendent.

MBF to her daughter, ALS, August
10, 1924, 4 pages, from Beacon, New York, addressed c/o D Chautauqua Assn. in
Chicago, and forwarded to Shirley, Indiana. This describes some inner workings
of the Chautauqua on a local level.

MBF to her daughter, ALS, June 13,
1925, 6 pages, from Philadelphia. MBF goes into details of her Eastern Pennsylvania
tour and visit to her son at Princeton.

MBF to her daughter, ALS, October
23, 1925, 8 pages from North Holstein, Virginia. MBF writes about the primitive
traveling conditions and unexpected program changes in the back country of Kentucky.
She writes on the stationery of the Hotel London in Lexington, Kentucky, which
advertised rooms on the European plan for "$1.25 & up," the American
plan for "$3.00 and up," and its location on the Dixie Highway. It
possessed "steam heat, hot & cold running water, baths." The last
sheet of the letter is on the letterhead of the Day Hotel in Whitesburg, Kentucky.

MBF to her daughter, ALS, November
2, 1925, 6 pages, from Thomasville, North Carolina, on the letterhead of the
Day Hotel. MBF notes her arrangement to work as a Chautauqua Superintendent
for the summer program in 1926.

MBF to her future son-in-law Walter
Giersbach, ALS, December 1, 1925, 4 pages, from Cooperville [sp?], Virginia.
She provides insights into life on the circuit and Chautauqua plans for the
coming year.

MBF to her mother, Mary Ballou, ALS,
from "Harison City, thereabouts, Pa." 10 pages. Marion Fisk [Giersbach]
noted on the letter that it was written in late January 1926.
MBF relates a saga of a lost boy and lost luggage.

MBF to her mother, Mary Bllou, ALS,
February 12, 1926, 16 pages, from Dawson, Pennsylvania. MBF continues the saga
from the previous letter.

MBF to her daughter, ALS, probably
on or about February 12, 1926, 6 pages, on notepaper from Gilmer's Hotel, Pembroke,
Virginia. MBF recapitulates the wedding described in the previous letter. The
letter's beginning four pages (two leaves) have been lost.

MBF's transcription, on the letterhead
of The Dinkler Hotels' Hotel Ansley in Atlanta, Georgia, 1 page, of an undated
letter written to her by Felix Sanchez, a fellow trouper.

Mrs. C.A. Ballou (MBF’s mother)
to MBF, December 5, 1926, ALS, 4 pages. Mr. C.A. Ballou (MBF’s father)
to MBF, December 5, 1926, ALS, 3 pages. On the envelope addressed to “Mrs.
Marion Ballou Fisk, Yardley, Pennsylvania, Care of Swarthmore Chautauqua,”
Mrs. Fisk penned: “Keep – Anent giving up Lyceum and Chaut. work.”
Her mother and father expressed their joy at Marion's leaving the Chautauqua
Circuit. Mrs. Ballou’s letter is on letterhead of The Wakefield, Marietta,
Ohio and the Hotel Roberts, Miami, Florida; Mr. Ballou’s is on a sheet
of The Wakefield stationary and on the verso of an advertisement for “Bazaar
… Under Auspices W.M.S. Baptist Church”.

Printout transcripts by Walter Fisk
Giersbach of the letters described above.

“The R.R. Engineer’s
Story.” Story written in pen and pencil, 2 pages in [MBF’s?] hand.

“A Frontier Home.” Story
written in pen, 2 pages on 2 sheets in [MBFs?] hand.

“1912. Last November I spent
a night in a little wood….” Story written in pencil, 6 pages, in
MBF’s hand. Typescript transcript by MFG with note: “Experience
of [MBF] later incorporated into lecture as The Cowboy’s Prayer.”

“Among the Sandhills, The Cowboy’s
Prayer”. Another version, written in pen, 5 pages on 5 sheets, with beginning
of a drawing on the verso of the final leaf.

“Negro Cemetery, Perry, Ga.
Sun. Mch. 30, 1913.” Story in pen, 6 pages on 3 sheets, in MBF’s
hand. Typed transcript by MFG with note: “Written by hand by [MBF]. Experiences
which she may have used, or planned to use at a later time.”

“Cap’n Tommy.”
Story in pen, three parts, 14 pages, in MBF’s hand.

“There now, don’t cry,
don’t cry….” Story in pen, 4 pages, in MBF’s hand. Typed
transcript by MFG with note: “One of the romantic things seen by [MBF]
in her handwriting.”

“She was a Kentuckian.…”
Story in pen, 7 pages, in MBF’s hand. Typed transcript by MFG with note:
“From the notes of [MBF] in her handwriting.”

“Irish Girl.” Poem (or
song), 1 page, in MBF’s hand. On the verso of the sheet is a drawing (colored
pencil?) and a few lines of obscure text which ends, “The Men Must Go!”

"The Guard of Honor". 2
sheets of ledger paper, 4 pages.

"That piece makes me tired snapped
Aunt Cordelia as she disgustedly threw "The Woman's Home Intelligencer"
down on the table." Two sheets of The Kirkwood, Geneva, New York, letterhead,
4 pages. Fragment.

"... further as I looked up
from my magazine..." 7 sheets of notebook paper, 14 pages. Fragment.

"Americans
in the Making". TMs, 11 pages, including a preliminary page headed
"INSCRIPTION". Text of an MBF illustrated lecture.

Schedule for 1926 “Premier
Festivals for the “FA Circuit”, September 11 – December
12, 1926. Mimeograph sheet annotated by MBF [with names of traveling partners?],
indications for “chalk” and “pap.”, and date changes.

Folder 4.

"KWEER
CHARACTERS I HAVE KNOWN". TMs, 60 pages. MBF's scripts and notes on
some of her presentations. This typescript was prepared by her daughter, Marion
Fisk Gierbach. MBF's original text does not survive in manuscript.

"The
voices sang lustily as the studio size piano was attacked by the musicians...."
AMs, 10 sheets, 10 pages. An
unpublished and unfinished manuscript by MBF’s daughter, Marion Fisk Giersbach
(1900-1991), provides perspective on why her mother ventured out as the family
breadwinner. MFG also served on the Circuit while in her early twenties and
speaks from first-hand knowledge. AMs and printout transcription.

Folder 5. Postcards

Twenty-four photographic postcards—many
duplicate, but with notations and identifications—of Chautauqua scenes
and performers.

----. 10 cards (5 images) picture
performers and tent in the 1909 Sabetha, Kansas, Chautauqua, MBF’s first
appearance. Three of the cards have been scanned: click
here.

----. 1 card pictures the Union Pacific
depot in Valparaiso, Nebraska and has MBF’s note, “April 14, 1909.
Dear Momma, Here is how, when and where I have arrived for my second bureau
engagement.”

Lyceum Magazine, news clip
of an item contributed by MBF for April 1925 issue, “The Lecture That
Scared Lloyd-George Away” on an interesting character she met who had
a lecture “four feet long and 18 inches wide.”

Illustrated program for the Swarthmore
Chautauqua, Sept. 13 to Sept. 15. MBF is given a page.

Illustrated program for the Elison-White
Chautauqua, Bonner, Oct. 5-10. MBF is given a page.

Folder 9. Bylined Articles

“Home Missionaries’ Wives”
by MBF, Cleveland, O. In The American Missionary, January 1918, pages
525-528.